ORPHA:420686
Woolly hair-palmoplantar keratoderma syndrome
Also known as: KWWH type IV · Keratoderma with woolly hair type IV · Woolly hair-palmoplantar hyperkeratosis syndrome
Query health: suspect — Only one of 2 strategies returned hits (phrase).
Publications
2
12.1th percentile
Trials
0
Interventional, condition-specific
Researchers
12
Distinct authors in sample
Gene link
KANK2
Limited
Readiness
2/6
Stages with a signal
Clinical definition (Orphanet)
Woolly hair-palmoplantar keratoderma syndrome is a very rare, epidermal disorder characterized by hypotrichosis/woolly scalp hair, sparse body hair, eyelashes and eyebrows, leukonychia, and striate palmoplantar keratoderma (more severe on the soles than the palms), which progressively worsens with age. Pseudo ainhum of the fifth toes was also reported. Although woolly hair-palmoplantar keratoderma syndrome shares clinical similarities with both Naxos disease and Carvajal syndrome, is notably absent.
How rare: <1 / 1 000 000 — fewer than one in a million. In a city the size of Kolkata, that might mean on the order of fifteen people.
Cross-references
Joined from Mondo / Orphanet. MeSH labels may enter searches; UMLS / OMIM / NCIT are stored for reference.
- MONDO:0014492
- OMIM:616099
- UMLS:C4015202
Additional Mondo synonyms (4)
keratoderma with woolly hair type IV · keratoderma with wooly hair type IV · woolly hair-palmoplantar hyperkeratosis syndrome · wooly hair-palmoplantar hyperkeratosis syndrome
Research stages
Trial readiness signals
Where this condition sits on an open-data research pipeline — not how close a treatment is, and not medical advice. Empty stages often mean “not in these databases under this Mondo ID,” not “impossible.”
2/6 stages with a signal
No matched interventional trial; the gene is known and literature exists — preclinical or natural-history work may still be the practical next step.
- Gene identifiedPresent
Limited — KANK2
- LiteraturePresent
2 matched papers (2 in last 10 years) Source
- Phenotype characterisedNot checked
Not yet enriched from Monarch / HPO
- Animal modelNot checked
Not yet enriched from Monarch / Alliance
- Orphan designationNot checked
FDA/EMA orphan-drug designation not enriched yet
- Interventional trialNot found
No matched interventional trial under our ClinicalTrials.gov rules
Biology
Genes and phenotypes
Gene–disease validity from GenCC, plus phenotypes and animal models joined from Monarch Initiative via Mondo ID — not a clinical diagnosis aid.
Do we know what causes it?
Possibly — only limited evidence so far for KANK2.
GenCC classification: Limited.
Phenotypes (Monarch / HPO)
Not enriched in this build — Monarch phenotype joins were not run for this record.
Animal models (Monarch / Alliance)
Not enriched in this build.
Literature
Is anyone studying this?
2
2 papers have ever been indexed under this name. For scale, breast cancer has over 700,000. Median papers in the last 10 years for a rare disease in this dataset (publications denominator n=5449) is 41.
2 papers since the earliest indexed year in this search — median last-10-year count for a rare disease in this dataset is 41 (publications denominator n=5449).
2 in the last 10 years · high confidence · 12.1th percentile (publications denominator)
Phrase hits: 2 · MeSH hits: 0
Who's working on it?
12
Distinct author names in 2 sampled papers — named people below.
Who's working on it?
No interventional trial matched this name; these authors publish on it in the sampled literature — a practical starting point for contact.
- 01Agarwal A1 paper · 2021
Department of DVL, IMS and SUM Hospital, Bhubaneswar, Odisha E-mail: akash.22.1995@gmail.com.
Papers in Europe PMC - 02Ananthakrishnan V1 paper · 2026
Intern, Department of DVL, Indira Gandhi Medical College and Research Institute, Pondicherry, India.
Papers in Europe PMC - 03Banushree CS1 paper · 2026
Professor, Department of Pathology, Indira Gandhi Medical College and Research Institute, Pondicherry, India.
Papers in Europe PMC - 04Cadiravane S1 paper · 2026
Intern, Department of DVL, Indira Gandhi Medical College and Research Institute, Pondicherry, India.
Papers in Europe PMC - 05Carounanidhy U1 paper · 2026
Professor and Head, Department of DVL, Indira Gandhi Medical College and Research Institute, Pondicherry, India.
Papers in Europe PMC - 06Chockalingam SK1 paper · 2026
Senior Assistant Professor, Department of ENT, Indira Gandhi Medical College and Research Institute, Pondicherry, India, Orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5793-5515.
Papers in Europe PMC - 07Damodaran J1 paper · 2026
Junior Resident, Department of Dermatology, Venereology and Leprology, Indira Gandhi Medical College and Research Institute, Pondicherry, India.
Papers in Europe PMC - 08Hassanandani T1 paper · 2021
Department of DVL, IMS and SUM Hospital, Bhubaneswar, Odisha E-mail: akash.22.1995@gmail.com.
Papers in Europe PMC - 09Kar BR1 paper · 2021
Department of DVL, IMS and SUM Hospital, Bhubaneswar, Odisha E-mail: akash.22.1995@gmail.com.
Papers in Europe PMC - 10Mohanan S1 paper · 2026
Associate Professor, Department of Dermatology, Venereology and Leprology, Indira Gandhi Medical College and Research Institute, Pondicherry, India, Corresponding Author, Orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0923-640X.
Papers in Europe PMC
Clinical research
Is a treatment being tested?
0
interventional trials for this specific condition
No interventional trial testing a treatment matched this specific condition name on ClinicalTrials.gov (observational studies and pan-disease registries are listed separately when present).
Data as of 27 July 2026
No matched interventional trials. This is true for 73% of diseases in the trials denominator (5114 of 7003). Here are the researchers publishing on it.
high confidence · 36.5th percentile (trials denominator)
Recruiting interventional trials
From the matched ClinicalTrials.gov set
No interventional trial testing a treatment was found for this specific condition name on ClinicalTrials.gov.
See who's working on it — people publishing on this disease are often the practical next contact when no trial is listed.
Where to find support
We do not yet link condition-specific patient organisations. These umbrella groups support undiagnosed and ultra-rare families:
India — NPRD
Last verified 2026-07-26This ORPHAcode is not on our curated NPRD list (direct or Mondo-parent match). That does not decide clinical eligibility; families in India should ask a notified Centre of Excellence about current coverage.
Hand-curated for this project. ORPHAcode mappings are best-effort and may be incomplete or imprecise for umbrella categories. Parent (Mondo) matches mean the policy lists a broader category — confirm eligibility with a Centre of Excellence. Financial entitlements summarised from public policy statements and may change. This is not official government guidance.
How we counted this
Europe PMC query (preferred label + any corrected label + Orphanet and Mondo exact synonyms, stoplisted; unioned with resolved MeSH labels when available). UMLS / OMIM / NCIT cross-references are stored on the overview but are not added to the query string.
"Woolly hair-palmoplantar keratoderma syndrome" OR "KWWH type IV" OR "Keratoderma with woolly hair type IV" OR "Woolly hair-palmoplantar hyperkeratosis syndrome" OR "keratoderma with wooly hair type IV" OR "wooly hair-palmoplantar hyperkeratosis syndrome"
ClinicalTrials.gov query (quoted phrases + MeSH via query.cond, plus recall-expansion terms when used):
"Woolly hair-palmoplantar keratoderma syndrome" OR "KWWH type IV" OR "Keratoderma with woolly hair type IV" OR "Woolly hair-palmoplantar hyperkeratosis syndrome" OR "keratoderma with wooly hair type IV" OR "wooly hair-palmoplantar hyperkeratosis syndrome" OR "KANK2" OR "focal palmoplantar keratoderma" OR "hereditary palmoplantar keratoderma"
Recall-expansion terms: KANK2, focal palmoplantar keratoderma, hereditary palmoplantar keratoderma
Study-type breakdown: 0 interventional · 0 observational · 0 expanded access. Only interventional studies enter the trial headline.
Query health: suspect — strategies attempted: phrase, recall-expansion; with hits: phrase
Run this search on ClinicalTrials.gov
Confidence reasoning
- Preferred label is multi-word and distinctive
- No synonyms dropped by stoplist
- No label/synonym collisions with other diseases in this corpus
Ingested 2026-07-27T15:49:02.790Z